Racing horses at Monticello Raceway during the afternoon of Monday, March 2 was no easy task

. The snow kept falling, the winds were gusting over 25 miles per hour, the temperatures hovered around 15 degrees and the race track surface was sloppy.

But for Monticello resident Mike Merton, it turned on to be a 'sunny' day when the veteran teamster matched the best daily output of his career. He guided five horses to the winners circle, albeit one in which he shared victory in a dead-heat.

Merton began his assault in the second race with a 2:06, six-length triumph with Rebecca Williams, Corey Greenberg and Dennis Weil’s trotter The Big Guy.

Then starting in the fifth race, Merton scored three consecutive victories. He won the fifth with Richard Banca, Richard and Fred Mizzoni’s, Best Brand in 2:04:4 and then won the sixth with Michael D’Abbraccio’s trotter HF Gal in a 2:06:3 clocking. He capped off his three race win-skein steering Ruth and Mitchell Stern’s Cannae Sandra to a 2:03 triumph in Race 7.

Merton capped his day tallying his fifth win in Race 10 when he piloted Lynne Stratton’s trotter Nickis Sister home for a dead-heat victory with Tallys Tee, who was driven by Jimmy Marohn, Jr. in a time of 2:07:2.

When asked if five wins was the most he ever had on one racing program, Merton thought for a moment and then said, “I had five wins two other times in the past and they also came when the weather was bad outside.

"I guess I am a good 'mudder,'" Merton concluded with a laugh.

(Monticello)